American publishers were required to send the Smithsonian one copy of
every book. Copyright status was revoked in 1859.

Although interested in maintaining a scientific library, Secretary Henry
believed that turning the Smithsonian into a national library would
cripple its other activities. In 1866, he moved most of the Smithsonian's
40,000-volume library to the Library of Congress, where it became known
as the "Smithsonian Deposit."

Secretary Henry endorsed the compilation and publication of the first
national listing of library resources as part of the Smithsonian's
efforts to gather national statistics.